The lowest-hanging fruit is through accelerators / incubators, although no one has quite cracked the accelerator model for biopharma yet: diagnostics / tools /

The lowest-hanging fruit is through accelerators / incubators, although no one has quite cracked the accelerator model for biopharma yet: diagnostics / tools / software can be great investments, but biopharma / therapeutics is where the real opportunity is though it is the most idiosyncratic business. While these are more accessible sources, they are also more picked over and investors need to rely on their own diligence to filter for quality: Indie bio, qb3, Jlabs, illumina accelerator, start x, y combinator are prominent Bay Area ones The best opportunities come from relationships with influential, well networked academic researchers; venture investors; r&d execs at big pharma; and successful serial entrepreneurs. If you have any of those in your network, that's the best place for high-quality deals. However big VCs often have established relationships with these folks and they will seed the most promising ideas Universities also have a lot of events supporting startups and these can be a good way to get involved in the ecosystem and build a network. If you talk to enough phd students and postdocs you'll get a sense of what opportunities are out there. phd students and postdocs are an incredibly under appreciated group, and they have a ton of potential to start great companies if they get the right support. If you get smart on the space and make an effort to meet these folks you'll find many seed opportunities Obviously these are not ideal paths. One of my passion projects is running a program that connects promising young scientists to life sci VCs to explore startup ideas. The main goal is mentoring young scientists as PhD students / postdocs are a woefully under appreciated sector of our workforce, but a few interesting startups have emerged from this as well.